They keep saying they are only actually listening to calls to and from known terrorists — in which case how come they haven’t been arrested yet — but nevertheless “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls,” part of a government plan “to create a database of every call ever made.” Because you never know when it might be important to know exactly who you talk to and when. Firestorm already beginnning, with the President denying that the NSA is “trolling through” people’s lives (and so what does he call a list of every phone call you’ve made in the last year?) and certain congressmen saying “Umm, what?”
In completely unrelated news, speaking of the NSA, “The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.” Well! That takes care of that!
Of course the Senate has taken some time out of their busy schedules to extend a tax break on stock dividends. Yeah, because that’s really on the top fo the list of American’s concerns right now. After all, the National Debt isn’t growing fast enough.
The Seattle Times asks Why does a good economy not feel that way? Now if we can get people asking that in places like Topeka and Oklahoma City and Memphis, we are in business.
Yet another serious vulnerability of Diebold voting machines has been found.
Maybe you are aware that the President has been in the practice of signing laws with a statement saying he doesn’t have to follow them. I suppose it’s easier than vetoing. The Boston Globe has compiled a few such statements for you. There are several serious issues involved, particularly since some of the laws were basically intended to stop a certain practice of the Administration. You may dimly recall from High School Civics that the Executive Branch — of which the President is the head — is supposed to enforce the law. The President has said essentially that he can ignore laws he doesn’t like. Oh, that’s only “when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution.” I don’t want to take his words out of context. How can we trust them to enforce the law when they won’t even agree to follow the law? How can the President be made to follow the law? Can we trust him to surrender the Presidency at the end of his term, or will he decide there was a problem with the Constitutional Amendment limiting him to two terms? And a more scary thought, if we can’t trust the President to follow American laws written by Congress, how and why should Iran trust him to follow international law during and following talks on nuclear weapons?
Finally, while you may be aware that Gas and Oil prices are at or near all-time highs you may not be aware that other commodities are also at high prices. Commodities being the building blocks of pretty much anything you can buy, this makes inflation almost a sure thing. Gold is also at multi-decade highs. Remember, investors usually buy gold when they are worried that all heck is going to break loose in the economy.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom today. You weren’t expecting comics, were you?